Manufacturing of semiconductor devices includes providing semiconductor wafers with metal layers having a thickness of 10 micrometers and more on a semiconductor substrate having a thickness of 200 micrometers or less. The metal layer may bend the semiconductor wafer by several millimeters. The bending hampers subsequent processing of the semiconductor wafers and may cause fissures that result in a decrease of production yield. Typically buffer layers between the metal layer and the semiconductor material, for example ductile layers, compensate for mechanical stress between the metal layer and the semiconductor material. It is desirable to further increase production yield for semiconductor devices having high surge energy capacity and cosmic radiation robustness at low switching losses.